This weekโs Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra concert may be titled โGabel Conducts Beethoven,โ but forgive me, Ludwig lovers โ the real news here is the non-Beethoven half of the program.
David Raymond
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CLASSICAL | Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra with Fabien Gabel
The RPO’s Philharmonics series begins the new year this week with some ballet without dancing, some opera without singing, and some Beethoven. Popular guest conductor Fabien Gabel โ the music director of the Quebec Symphony Orchestra โ is joined by Finnish pianist Juho Pohjonen, making his Rochester debut with Beethoven’s First Piano Concerto (the composer’s […]
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HOLIDAY | RPO’s ‘Gala Holiday Pops’
If anything qualifies as a popular local holiday tradition, it’s the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra’s Holiday Pops concert, masterminded by Principal Pops Conductor Jeff Tyzik. For the 2019 edition, with four concerts this weekend, the musical mix is comfortably familiar: a little pop, a little classical, and a lot of favorite Christmas carols (a few of […]
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HOLIDAY CLASSICAL | Pegasus Early Music’s ‘A Baroque Noel’
Christmas is best celebrated with friends and with music. Pegasus Early Music offers lots of both in its “Baroque Noel” this Sunday afternoon, a concert of seasonal 17th-century gems brought to life by a full Baroque choir and orchestra. The friends include many faces and voices familiar to Pegasus fans, and this concert also includes […]
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Concentus Women’s Chorus moves forward with new music director
Singer and conductor Anna Atwater first sang with Concentus Women’s Chorus in a 2016 concert. Three years later, Atwater is the choir’s first new music director since its founding.
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CLASSICAL | RPO with JoAnn Falletta
JoAnn Falletta, the lauded music director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, makes a welcome visit east this week to lead the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. The concert begins with a brief but delightful Overture by Germaine Taillefaire (1892-1983), the female member of the composer coterie Les Six. The late Christopher Rouse’s Flute Concerto comes next, probably […]
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Classical review: โBach to Bartรณkโ an RPO journey worth taking
Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern, and Alban Berg โ great composers but only occasional visitors to Kodak Hall at best โ finally made it on the same Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra program last night.
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CLASSICAL | RPO presents ‘Bach to Bartók
The title of this week’s Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra concert, “Bach to Bartók,” is a bit misleading. Conductor Ward Stare’s ambitious program might more accurately be titled “Great Hits of 20th-Century Modernism”: fascinating music from the three composers of the so-called “Second Viennese School,” plus a masterpiece by Béla Bartók. The concert does indeed begin with […]
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CHORAL | Rochester Oratorio Society’s ‘Magnificat’
One of the Book of Luke’s most influential passages is probably the Magnificat, Mary’s canticle of praise to the Lord. Its words โ which begin, “My soul doth magnify the Lord” โ have inspired numerous composers, from popular works by Vivaldi and J.S. Bach to the three less-familiar examples represented on this Friday’s Rochester Oratorio […]
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CLASSICAL | Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra
RPO Music Director Ward Stare’s program for this week’s concert features two very different works from 1919. Cellist Andrei Ioniศฤ (pictured), who was a powerhouse a couple of seasons ago in Shostakovich’s First Cello Concerto, returns as soloist in Edward Elgar’s magnificently melancholic concerto, first performed (unsuccessfully) in 1919. That’s also the year that Igor Stravinsky fashioned […]
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Publick Musick explores Dido myth in season-opening concert
Dido, Queen of Carthage, is one of the most memorable women in ancient lore. Seduced and jilted by the Trojan War hero Aeneas, Dido took her own life rather spectacularly, building her own funeral pyre and stabbing herself as she lay on it. But Dido if was only a temporary inspiration to Aeneas, she proved to be a much more lasting inspiration for composers of the Baroque era, as Publick Musick’s October 27 concert demonstrates.
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CLASSICAL | Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra
Former Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra music director Christopher Seaman makes his annual guest conducting visit this week. The program includes a 20th-century classic in Hindemith’s “Symphonic Metamorphoses of Themes by Weber,” and a 19th-century classic in Tchaikovsky’s grandiose Fourth Symphony. They’re both orchestral spectaculars, but they couldn’t be more contrasting. Violinist Simone Porter (pictured) made her […]
